Remarkably Bright Creatures

Last week Sabal bought me a gift, this time something he’s never bought for me earlier - a book. Given he is not a reader himself, he said he never knew whether I’d like a book he’d buy, but this one he said “gave him a feeling that I’d like reading it”. It was titled “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby van Pelt. I loved the blurb. But it had to wait for a couple more days until I finished the book I was reading then. (I cannot read two books simultaneously, can you?)

The book starts off in the small town of Sowell Bay in around 2019-2020. Has fascinating characters including but not limited to Marcellus, an extremely intelligent, observant and thoughtful giant Pacific Octopus who is the hero of the story. Tova, over seventy years of age with no kin, forms a beautiful relationship with Marcellus. It is not just the two of them though - through them we meet most of the other residents of Sowell Bay, each unique and kind in their own way. There were times when tears would roll down my cheeks as I tipped my hat to the incredible strength of Tova, the love and kindness of Ethan, the ever supportive Terry, the friendship of the Knit-wits, the naïveté of Cameron and of course the remarkable insights of Marcellus. 

There was a comment from Prasath to my earlier post (A decade later) about how living is what we do in the small, everyday moments of life and I can’t agree more with that thought. This book taught me another valuable lesson, we never forget the ones who leave us (they do continue to stay with us in our memories of the small moments) but we move on. We must move on, no matter how big the tragedy that brought us down was. It touched a nerve for me and gave me a quiet strength which I feel in my heart but can’t seem to put into words. 

I highly recommend reading this, for it felt like a warm cup of hot chocolate on a cold morning, when you want to wrap a blanket around your shoulders only to find your cat tucked in nicely and you just don’t want to disturb him. You know this happened.